Category Archives: Congress

ARE THE BUREAUCRATS STRANGLING AMERICA?

A Republican senator views the future with alarm – have we changed, as he says, “from the liberty-loving democracy to a fear-stricken mass of automatons”?

By Arthur R. Robinson, United States Senator from Indiana

We are going through a revolution. Call it what you may — a “change”; and “evolution”; “gradual substitution”; or simply “the New Deal” – the fact is that we have change from a liberty-loving democracy to a fear-stricken mass of automatons ruled by an army of bureaucrats.

Our bureaus which were formerly our servants have now become our masters. Bureaucracy has gone wild in the last year. Today we see a superstructure of more than forty agencies with upward of 40,000 additional government employees.

This is but the beginning. As the gradual change in our form of government moves forward, new agencies are needed. This means more federal employees, more supervision, more bureaucracy – and it all means more money from the citizens’ pocketbooks. But these bureaucrats, utterly irresponsible, do not care who pays the bill so long as they can go merrily on.

This towering burden of bureaucracy contains many incipient dangers to American democracy. We now see in process a moving away from the democracy toward an autocracy of executive dictatorship with countless bureaus and employees, all independent of control by the electorate.

These bureaucrats represent,in large part, plain political spoils. Once in, it is almost impossible to dislodge them, for they wield an increasingly great amount of political influence.

The Home Owners Loan Corporation is reputed to be the worst offending agency of the emergency set-up in this regard. The Senate adopted an amendment to a bill which would make it possible to employ personnel in the HOLC without regard to political considerations. The Senate adopted the amendment; the President wanted it and the HOLC board wanted it; but when the bill reached the House, that body struck out the amendment. Few more unpatriotic acts have been charged against either house of Congress. Yet ever since the advent of the new deal, if anyone has dared criticize, he has been branded “unpatriotic,” “old dealer,” “Tory,” or “standpatter.”

No one has any thought of quarreling with the good intentions of the administration, but present efforts toward recovery have resulted in a virtual abdication of power by the people’s Congress and in a government by Presidential proclamation and edict. Indeed, the system of government now extant is alarmingly reminiscent of the old Russian government by ukase under the czars.

The first step in the much advertised revolution is the virtual abdication of control by representatives of the electorate under the guise of “emergency legislation.” But too often “emergency” enactment graduates into permanent legislation. A majority vote in Congress enacts legislation, but it requires a two-thirds vote to override a veto. Thus constitutional controls are displaced by extra-constitutional controls. This first revolutionary step is bound up with efforts toward hybrid control, some of which is voluntary and some involuntary. Thus as much of the New Deal’s voluntary crop-control efforts fails, we see the administration swinging into an era of compulsory control -witness the Bankhead cotton bill.

Compulsory control is the second major step in the revolution. In industry, with the NRA (National Recovery Agency), we are living under a bureaucracy. Now we learn that the NRA may be made permanent. Industry is being governed by codes, and agriculture is being regimented by voluntary and involuntary crop- and stock-control efforts.

A political raid foreshadowed what would happen as soon as the bureaucrats could get into the saddle. Just before the present administration came in to power the Senate adopted a resolution demanding that it be furnished with a list of the available jobs in the public service.

This list made a volume of more than four hundred pages and was soon characterized as the “plunder book.” Ironically enough, it was issued on the anniversary of the signing of the first Civil Service Act. Needless to recount what was done with trained and efficient service employees— a literal clean sweep was made by the New Deal regardless of merit or experience.

But the real iniquities began to appear with the Civil Service itself was figuratively tossed out the window and thousands of new employees hired without regard to training or qualifications. Under the lash of the Executive last March, the Congress passed the cruel and inhumane so-called Economy Act. It reduced the budget a few hundred million dollars, but it impoverished thousands of disabled veterans and their families, and depleted purchasing power at a time when it was most seriously needed.

A few millions were lopped from the budget by cutting veterans’ benefits, and several times that amount expended on tree planting in the CCC. Moreover, $148,000,000 was taken from the public works allocation and from labor in the building trades to get the CCC started. Thus useful projects for which money was allocated had to be delayed. Able-bodied young men between eighteen and twenty-five were given jobs while at the same time thousands of disabled war veterans were thrown on charity and relief.

In its annual report last June — and that was before most of the new bureaucratic units had been set up — the National Civil Service Reform League said:

The new administration has turned it’s back on the only method of safeguarding these new agencies from maladministration. Without a single exception the agencies of government thus created have been thrown open to the political spoilsmen to do with as they see fit. The excuse given one objection is made to exemption from civil service tests has been that these agencies are a part of the emergency program and that they may prove temporary in character. A more specious excuse could not be devised to hoodwink the public.

Mark you, this comes from a distinguished nonpartisan body of citizens.

The role of the spoilsman has been eased considerably by the administration’s novel double-budget system. We have had an “ordinary” and an “extraordinary” budget. The former was used to include the ordinary business of operating the government, the latter as a “catch-all” for the emergency expenditures.

When the New Deal was to make a great show of “balancing the budget,” or “reducing expenditures,” and “redeeming pledges to reduce expenditures,” it referred to the ordinary budget. But when it asked Congress for an appropriation of a few million or a few billion dollars, it used the extraordinary budget.

As a result we are faced with a treasury deficit of upwards of ten billions and our national indebtedness will reach a new high when it hits the thirty-two billion mark.

The people should refuse to be deceived any longer. Either we must retrench and safeguard our financial standing or we shall be plunged headlong into reckless and utterly uncontrolled inflation.

More alarming still are the estimates which show that a year after the New Deal began approximately one out of every six persons in the United States owed part or all of his living to the bounty of the federal treasury. In addition to this number more than 860,000 were mortgagors or borrowers of the federal government.

However, the real danger is that almost enough people now owe their living to Uncle Sam to control elections and make this dangerous bureaucracy self-perpetuating. Such a step has obvious perils. It would lead to violent change. Either an extreme right-wing or some form of Fascist control would develop, or the machinery of government would suffer a complete breakdown, which would be followed by extreme left-wing control, communism, or something worse.

We have seen power become more and more centralized. We have seen state lines practically obliterated by controls from Washington, as the federal government has taken over more and more of the so-called reserved powers of the states. New state-encroachment bills are being passed today. With these emergency controls we see regimentation of agriculture and industry. The next step, and the one in the midst of which we find ourselves, is that of compulsory control. After this will come absolute price fixing, and then we may expect a sharp era of income regulation. What next? The collectivism of the New Deal will lead us, if we are not careful, into an era of thoroughgoing regulation. This regulation, if carried to its logical conclusion, may well bring on an autocratic government.

Let America beware!

Bureaucracy never means efficiency — it always spells inefficiency. Look at what it did to Russia during the Russo-Japanese War. We are in the midst of a world that envies us, to say the least. We have a enormous international problems. Bureaucracy, irresponsible and its nature, can settle none of them. Representative government, imperfect though it may be, is still the most efficient devised by man. Let us not discard it. Constitutional government is as essential to the American people today as it any time in the past.

Only by demolition of much of the vicious structure of bureaucracy which has so suddenly grown up among us may we preserve our freedom and the Constitution of the United States which guarantees a square deal to all men.

The End

This article was published on September 22, 1934 in Liberty magazine. With a few minor changes, it could have been written today. Eighty years later we have failed to heed Senator Robinson’s warning and have instead allowed the federal bureaucracies to expand and flourish – further increasing the federal powers (and debt) while diminishing the States’ powers. We still make first cuts at the expense of our veterans. Senator Robinson references a mere forty new bureaucracies. How shocked would he be to discover the eleven pages of Cabinets, Agencies, Bureaus, Departments, and others currently listed on the federal government’s registry? How would he view our current debt problem and our treatment of veterans?

The article notes “Senator Robinson has been a hard, consistent fighter in the cause of nationalism, also against foreign debt cancellation – on which subject he has spoken his mind in Liberty. He is known especially as a Senatorial champion of veterans’ claims; he himself served in the A.E.F. and the army of occupation on the Rhine, and rose from shavetail to major.”

Franklin Roosevelt had been in office for just over one year and America was in the depths of the Great Depression. Unemployment FELL to 21.7%.

Since the onset of the recession, NASCAR has been suffering a long streak of precipitously declining track attendance and TV ratings. And it hasn’t recovered.

NASCAR’s slump has been blamed on a number of things: a sluggish economy, a reliance on an older (and white) male fan base, cookie-cutter cars, the waning of American car culture, weak social media offerings, high gas prices, and boring races. In 2010, NASCAR Chairman Brian France ordered a five-year plan to stem the bleeding.

But on May 21, 2012, NASCAR may have choked off that five-year plan before it could get any traction. On that day, NASCAR inked a deal with the Obama EPA. Under the terms of the three-year pact, NASCAR will “stimulate participation in EPA programs” and “foster greater environmental awareness among NASCAR fans.” The EPA will identify the environmental “programs and messages that are best suited for promoting environmental stewardship and sustainable behavior.” NASCAR is charged with “encouraging greater environmental awareness and sustainable behavior by their fans.”

In other words, NASCAR is now an official EPA apparatchik charged with shoving the agency’s Orwellian propaganda down the throats of its fans in an attempt to change their behavior. NASCAR has essentially agreed to become a corporate crony of the EPA’s job and wealth shredding machine. For a sport that has always prized independence, raw power, and American traditions (invocations and military flyovers start each race), this may be too much for its core fans to swallow.

Is there anything left that this government has not destroyed? That was a rhetorical. We all know the answer is NO.

Like this:

Dissection of the Obama campaign has begun in full earnest. I mostly skip this analytical stuff. The ones that paint a gloomy GOP picture are worrisome, and the ones that paint a rosy GOP picture tempt you to count chickens before they are hatched, and that’s worrisome, too.

Unfortunately, my opinion is not a good gauge of the public-at-large. I can never figure out what people are thinking. And I’ve been real curious about the public-at-large lately, because of emails like this one, with the name “Sarah Jessica Parker” in the “from” box:

“Linda — It’s my honor to invite you to take part in an event I’m hosting at my home with the President and First Lady on June 14th. If you can make a donation of any amount today, you’ll be automatically entered to win two tickets to New York to join us. Just before Election Day in 2008, I went to an Obama campaign office in New York and called some undecided voters. I believed then, as I do now, that if we all chipped in and did our part, we would not only make history, but create meaningful change that so many Americans needed. For me, this election is even more important than 2008. As a woman, a mother, and an entrepreneur, I need to believe our country can be a place where everyone has a fair shot at success. This November’s election will determine whether we get to keep moving forward, or if we’re forced to go back to policies that ask people like my middle-class family in Ohio to carry the burden — while people like me, who don’t need tax breaks, get extra help. . . . I hope you’ll help me welcome President Obama and the First Lady to New York. It should be fabulous. Donate $3 or whatever you can to be automatically entered to win: https://donate.barackobama.com/Night-in-New-York Hope to see you there, Sarah Jessica”

I am terribly curious: how successful is an email like this? Does it actually work? It must, because with just two email subscriptions–Organizing for America, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee–I sure get a lot of emails. Heck, two more popped up since I started this post–one from Rep. Pelosi and once from VP Biden.

Joe Biden’s subject box is eyebrow-raising: “Midnight, Linda.”

“This is Barack’s last campaign. If you’re planning to chip in before November, we’d both appreciate if you do so today. Make a donation before the deadline at midnight your time.”

Nancy Pelosi’s missive is less creepy, at least:

“The news reports over the last few days have been all about Republicans’ money being from Karl Rove and the Koch Brothers. Now, all eyes are on our response.We’re just 1,121 donors away from a record-breaking 100,000 supporters in the month of May standing behind President Obama for a Democratic Majority. Will you contribute $3 or more before tonight’s midnight FEC deadline to help us reach a new all-time record? Your donation will be triple-matched . . . “

In order to more fairly assess these emails, I have just signed up for updates from the Romney campaign and from the National Republican Congressional Committee. If he starts filling up my inbox with similar spam, I’ll post about it. No emails yet, but there is this: Grab A Bite With Mitt contest.

Who started all this contest stuff? Who decided that turning the presidential election into some sort of lottery ball machine is a good idea?

“Although an unusually high percentage (49%) of Obama’s funds came in discrete contributions of $200 or less, only 26% of his money . . . came from donors whose total contributions aggregated to $200 or less. Obama’s 26% compares to 25% for George W. Bush in 2004, 20% for John Kerry in 2004, 21% for John McCain in 2008, 13% for Hillary Clinton in 2008, and 38% for Howard Dean in 2004.”

So maybe that’s what these emails are all about: the groundwork for creating the appearance of having real grassroots support, rather than, you know, actually trying to increase grassroots support.

Who, after all, is going to get all fired up for the Obama campaign, thanks to his inbox filling up weekly with gems like this:

“Linda — One thing to know about me is that I don’t really sugarcoat things. Luckily, this offer doesn’t need it. Make a donation of $3 or whatever you can to help President Obama and Democrats facing tough races across the country this year, and be automatically entered for the chance to spend a night on the town with the President and President Clinton in New York City. Don’t worry about travel, airfare, or accommodations for you and whoever you choose to bring with you — we’ve got it covered. The event’s less than two weeks from now. We’re drawing the winner at midnight tonight. https://my.democrats.org/Two-Presidents-and-You And if you win, I promise — you’ll love it. Thanks, and good luck, Debbie Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz”

Ooh, she promises!

Here’s another good one. I’ve always wanted to host a foreign exchange student, and these folks are sure foreign to me:

“Linda — This summer, hundreds of field organizers and volunteers will join our organization here in Virginia to register voters and talk to our friends and neighbors . . . . Some of these organizers will be new to the Commonwealth, and a lot of them will come on short notice. They’ll uproot their lives because they know the stakes in this election, and they know how important it is for us to win Virginia this November. I know that you do, too, so I’m asking for your help — although not in the usual way.

I know this is a big favor to ask, but as someone who has stayed with supporters before, I can tell you that it means a lot to the folks you host, and it will make a real difference as we build our grassroots organization here in Virginia.

“What we’re observing are the ripples at the surface of desperate struggles deep in the cesspool. The “Progressive” wing of the Left are chupped as Hell that the radicals – Obama, Van Jones & Co. cranked the frog pot too fast, too far and blew the lid off. No patience, no guile these amateurs. The frogs are hopping mad.”

Perhaps the torrent of goofy, ineffective spam in my inbox is just more ripples, evidence of the struggles deep within the Democratic Party. What do you think?

Of course, Stimpy only breathes the rarefied air of deep blue Maryland and Washington, DC. He thinks that the Democrats are so over-the-top popular that they’ll overcome the ass wuppin’ they received in 2010. He also thinks that high gas prices, plummeting home values, and high food prices don’t render consequences or are not noticed by the electorate.

Yeah. I know that it is his job to promote the Democrats’ fantasies, just like that Nancy Pelosi and Debbie-WashMyHair-Schultz.

That’s the kind of economic destruction of American households that is certain to guarantee your party’s resurgence back to the majority.

Thanks for the laugh, though.

And since your opinion bears no more weight than mine, I predict that the Republicans will pick up even more seats in the House, the Republicans will also take the Senate and the White House.

And let’s not forget the Department of Labor’s new 85 page regulation on kids growing up on farms. When sissy panted city slickers isolated in work cubes in government think farms dictate that farming and ranching chores are to be PROHIBITED by government fiat, well, you’ve so overreached as to make yourselves objects of derision as well as instructive of the dangers of an all powerful central government.

Just a reminder. Most farm kids know how to handle a pitchfork, even if you’ve never actually seen one.

And then there are your impending losses in the Supreme Court over Obamacare and the big fail on your suit against Arizona which wishes to control the border.

You guys are on such a roll I can see how you’d get cocky.

But hear me know.

We’re going to Slow Jam this election right up your rectal canals. You’re finished. It’d be best for you to save yourselves the embarassment and simply resign at this time. Do you really want to receive the drubbing you’re about to receive?

I’m getting just a little excited about the humiliation you’re about to get.

Like this:

It was an historic, crazy and entertaining day at the Supreme Court. I was clicking pics on my iPhone and emailing them to Bryan Preston over at PJ Media throughout the Americans for Prosperity rally and those can be seen here.

I’m going to tease you a bit with more pics from the AFP rally, but I’ve got lots of video to sort through from being amongst the Obamaggots at the Supreme Court itself, which was a few blocks away from the AFP rally.

It will take some time to mash up all the video I took and I hope to provide something tonight, or at least get it mostly done tonight and it’ll show up tomorrow. (I’m one guy here. Gimme a break.)

Let’s just say that early today, when we were at the Supreme Court most of the participants appeared to be college age kids looking for a party and when pressed they weren’t very informed. But they certainly dance and chant as instructed by their ‘minders’. Lots of energy, too.

But there numbers were smallish, even though they were provided signage and breakfast by NOW, SEIU, Planned Parenthood and others. McMartin may have a great scoop about payments being made to participants, but he had to go to his daughter’s birthday party tonight, so stay tuned for that.

We outnumbered the ObamACORNs decisively today. At least 5 to 1.

Enjoy these pics whilst I have some dinner and then get to work.

Let’s just say there’s a very, very special UTERUS waiting for you people once I get done.

We’re headed up to the Supreme Court tomorrow morning, along with a few other patriots on the day that the Supremes hear oral arguments about the Indvidual Mandate component of Obamacare.

The leftist Obama Corps is already entrenched, having been dispatched by Obama’s thug Army, the SEIU, AFSCME and the usual leftist cheerleaders.

We hope to mix it up with the other side a little. Do you think we can get them to say something stupid for the video camera?

With gasoline priced as it is and the distance we have to travel we wouldn’t be heading up there if it wasn’t a sure thing.

Then we’ll slide over to the Americans for Prosperity ‘Hands Off Healthcare’ rally.

I’m thinking part A of tomorrow will be much more interesting than part B, but just like sports, anything can happen and that’s why they play the game.

It’ll be a long day and we hope to get something to you as quickly as humanly possible or report back that absolutely nothing happened and that all of us taking the day off and spending all that money on petrol was a waste.